Little Blue Riding Hood and the Mountain Lion
Items > Lore Books Little Blue Riding Hood and the Mountain Lion Once upon a time there was a small, sweet boy; everyone who saw him liked him but most of all his grandmother, who wasn't sure what she wanted to give him as a present. So she gave him a hood made out of blue felt and because it suited him and he wore nothing else, everyone called him "Blue Hood". One lovely day his father said to him: "Come, Blue Hood, here you have a milk roll and a bottle of wine. Bring them to your grandmother, who is weak and ill and living alone in the woods. Be proper and keep to the path or you will meet wild animals. Otherwise Grandmother won't have anything. And when you enter the cabin, then greet her politely with "Good day". "I will manage it fine", the boy assured his father and gave him his hand. The grandmother lived out in the forest, half an hour's walk away. As Blue Hood entered the woods, the mountain lion crossed his path. Blue Hood, however, didn't know what a treacherous animal it was and was not frightened. "Good day to you Blue Hood", he said politely. "Thankyou, mountain lion." "Where are you headed to, so early?" "To Grandmother's." "What have you got in your basket?" "A milk roll and wine.. we were baking recently, Grandmother shall benefit from it and gain strength." "Where does your poor grandmother live?" "Another quarter of an hour away in the forest, under four pine trees, the nut hedges are under them, as you will know. The mountain lion thought to himself: "The small, young man, a chubby bite, he'd taste better than the old woman, you will have to be sly to catch them both." He walked next to Blue Hood for a while, then he spoke: "Look! Do you see the blackberries all around, why don't you pick a few? I believe you don't hear how quaintly the birds are singing. Do you see how fun it is out in the forest?" Bluecap raised his eyes and saw the sun rays dancing in and out of the treetops and, seeing the juicy blackberries, thought: "If I pick a few of them for Grandmother, she will surely be pleased. It is still early, I'll get there in time." So he left the path and started looking for berries. Every time he picked one, he saw a bigger one on the next bush and so he wandered off deeper into the forest. However, the mountain lion carried on to the grandmother's house and knocked on the door. "Who's there?" "Blue Hood, bringing you a milk roll and wine." "Just press the doorhandle down", the grandmother called. "I cannot get up." The mountain lion pressed down on the handle, the door opened and he silently snuck to the bed and devoured the grandmother. Then he put on her clothes, lay down in her bed and closed the curtains. But Blue Hood had gone after the blackberries and when he had picked so many that he could not carry any more, he remembered his grandmother and continued on to her. He wondered why the door was open, and as he entered the cabin he felt it was so strange inside that he thought: "By the Gods, I am so frightened today, though normally I really like being here at Grandmother's!" He called out "Good day", but did not get an answer. Then he went to the bed and opened the curtain - there lay Grandmother who had pulled her bonnet far over her face and looked so strange. "Grandmother, what big ears you have!" "All the better to hear you with." "Grandmother, what big eyes you have!" "All the better to see you with." "Grandmother, what big hands you have!" "All the better to grasp you with!" "But Grandmother, what a big, terrible mouth you have!" "All the better to eat you with!" No sooner had the mountain lion said that, he lept out of the bed and devoured the poor boy. When the lion had satisfied his needs, he lay back down on the bed, fell asleep and started snoring loudly. A hunter passed by the hut and thought: "What a snore that old lady has, I should see if everything is alright." He entered the cabin and as he reached the bed, he saw the mountain lion lying on it. "Found you, you old sinner", he said, "I have been looking for you for a long time." Just as he wanted to draw his bow he realized the mountain lion could have eaten the grandmother and she may still be saved, so he did not shoot, but instead took a pair of scissors and began to cut open the mountain lion's stomach. He had just made a couple of cuts when he saw the blue hood; then another couple and the boy jumped out and cried: "Oh, how scared I was, it was so dark in the lion's insides!" And then the old grandmother came out, alive but barely breathing. Blue Hood then quickly gathered large stones and filled the mountain lion's body with them, and as he awoke he wanted to jump away, but the stones were so heavy that he fell and sank dead to the ground. All three were happy; the hunter took the skin off the lion and took it home, the grandmother ate the milk roll and drank the wine that Blue Hood had brought and got better, but Bluecap thought: "Never in my life will I stray from the forest path alone if my father has forbidden it." Notes Category:Books